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From: Nil on 10 Dec 2009 16:50
On 10 Dec 2009, Nil <rednoise(a)REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote in
cakewalk.audio:

> On 10 Dec 2009, "Sue Morton" <867-5309(a)domain.invalid> wrote in
> cakewalk.audio:

>> Can you still run against the disk? Use 'backup' and make full
>> image instead. I think that's available with your version. If
>> not, download the free trial -- when I last checked (a version or
>> two ago) it was fully functional and wasn't limited in size. Or
>> try Macrium Reflect free version.

OK, I seem to have a successful backup. I had already moved all data
off the C drive. I now chose to backup "My Computer", backing up "Disks
and partitions". The Used Space reported was 124 GB, but I think that
figure is innacurate, and is a result of the corrupt file system. My
rough figure of what's REALLY on there is about 20 - 25 GB.

The backup completed, and the backup file is only about 12 GB. Assuming
that it's compressed, it seems a little smaller than I expected, but
possibly correct.

So, my burning question is, can this backup file be restored to a new
partition and be bootable?
From: kitekrazy on 10 Dec 2009 17:54
Nil wrote:
> Seems like this crew has dealt with every possible computer problem, so
> maybe someone has some advice.
>
> My boot hard disk has gone bad. Chkdsk first started reporting bad
> sectors, and when I'd run it again every day or two, the number
> increased. I bought a new disk and today used Acronis True Image Home
> 11 to first make a disk image to my external backup disk, then to clone
> the old disk to the new. One thing I didn't anticipate... the sectors
> that had been marked bad by chkdsk seem to have been cloned to the new
> disk as well. So, now when I run chkdsk on the new disk it reports a
> huge number of bad sectors, but I know the disk is OK.
>
> I really REALLY want to avoid reformatting and reinstalling the OS and
> all my programs. Is there any way to, like, reset the chkdsk records,
> or "recertify" the integrity of the disk or something? Or is there some
> other way to clone the old damaged disk to avoid the problem?

Many times I settle for the latter. Each new install I find I put less
on each drive. I use to download and install every free VST out there
and some apps that always scan plugins at startup take a long time.
From: Nil on 10 Dec 2009 18:06
On 10 Dec 2009, Glennbo <vdrumsYourHeadFromYourAss(a)cox.net> wrote in
cakewalk.audio:

> Should be able to do it. I originally had a 40 gig drive in my
> HTPC and when it failed, I put a 250 gig drive in, restored my
> backup and it booted right up and Windows was still activated.

Awesome. I'm in the process of moving more stuff off the computer, and
when that's done, now that I have three different ways of possibly
restoring things (two different backups and the original disk) I'm
going to try it. If all else fails, I'm mentally prepared to reinstall
from scratch.

More news in a while!

From: Nil on 11 Dec 2009 17:09
On 10 Dec 2009, Nil <rednoise(a)REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote in
cakewalk.audio:

> My boot hard disk has gone bad. Chkdsk first started reporting bad
> sectors, and when I'd run it again every day or two, the number
> increased. I bought a new disk and today used Acronis True Image
> Home 11 to first make a disk image to my external backup disk,
> then to clone the old disk to the new. One thing I didn't
> anticipate... the sectors that had been marked bad by chkdsk seem
> to have been cloned to the new disk as well. So, now when I run
> chkdsk on the new disk it reports a huge number of bad sectors,
> but I know the disk is OK.
>
> I really REALLY want to avoid reformatting and reinstalling the OS
> and all my programs. Is there any way to, like, reset the chkdsk
> records, or "recertify" the integrity of the disk or something? Or
> is there some other way to clone the old damaged disk to avoid the
> problem?

Whew! I'm finally out of trouble and back in business.

I did a couple of things before I got things going again. I was trying
to restore my disk from my Acronis True Image archive using the
"Restore disks or partitions" option. But since the partition I had
backed up had a corrupt file system, Acronis wouldn't let me resize the
destination partition, and the new file system had the same corruption
as the old.

What I finally did was to create an 80 GB NTFS partition using Windows
Disk Manager. Then I used Acronis's "Restore Specified files or
folders" option, choosing to restore everything. I was hoping that this
would give me a bootable disk... but I was disappointed - after
swapping in the new disk for the old, I got an "insert bootable media"
error message when I tried.

What I finally did was start a new XP install on the disk, letting it
get to the point where the install files were copied to the new disk
from the install CD and the hard disk booted up to continue the
install. At that point, I canceled the install, knowing that it was at
least bootable. Then I swapped my original (corrupt but working) boot
disk with the new disk as a secondary and booted into Windows. Then I
did the same Acronis restore that I tried before. This time, it worked!
- I was able to boot the new disk and everything was present and
operational! Somehow the Windows install procedure did something to the
disk to make the disk bootable.

So now I have a nice new 600 GB disk. The C: partition is 80 GB and
will be only for the OS and applications. I think this will be FAR more
space than I will ever need - it's only about 25% full now and I don't
anticipate installing a whole lot else. I have moved all my data to
drive D, another physical disk. I still have 500 GB left on the new
disk that I haven't decided what to do with yet. Some of it will go
toward storing a couple emergency restore images, for sure.

Thanks everybody for all the good advice. I was fighting the urge to
panic, but your cool calm collected collective heads helped me keep
mine.
From: Nil on 11 Dec 2009 18:29
On 11 Dec 2009, Glennbo <vdrumsYourHeadFromYourAss(a)cox.net> wrote in
cakewalk.audio:

> Hey, you get an official "geek award" for thinking of sneaky ways
> to get where you want to go, when following the rules ain't doing
> it! ;)

I will wear it proudly.

> Glad you got your system working without having to reinstall
> everything.

Me, too! Machines exist to do my bidding, and I refuse to let one get
the better of me, even if it drives me crazy.

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